Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 26 March 2014

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 26 March 2014

CBI probe into Muzaffarnagar riots rejected

The Supreme Court has rejected the plea for CBI/SIT probe into the
Muzaffarnagar riots that took place in September 2013.

The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam said that if
the Centre and the State intelligence agencies had smelled of what was
happening at the ground level, then the riots could have been prevented.

Declining the prayer for CBI/SIT probe, the court referred to a number
of steps that the State police has taken to deal with the situation and the
subsequent actions.

The court said that the State had failed to protect the serious
violation of fundamental rights of the people and said it was duty-bound to
protect and uphold the people’s rights.

In a reference to a state government circular saying that the relief
would be available to Muslim victims only, the court in one of its several
directions said that the availability of relief should not be on the basis
of victim’s religious denomination and it should be provided to genuine
victims.

Two missiles test-fired by North Korea

North Korea test-fired two missiles into the sea, prompting condemnation
from South Korea, Japan and the United States.

It was the latest of several such launches , as South Korean, Japanese
and US leaders criticised North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme at a
meeting in the Netherlands.

The missiles were fired from north of Pyongyang and flew around 650
kilometres before falling into the waters east of the Korean Peninsula.

The United States said the latest launches of No-Dong type missiles, as
well as those of Scud missiles on March 3 and February 27, violated UN
Security Council resolutions that established missile moratoriums for
Pyongyang.

Pakistan -Taliban talks

Government negotiators flew down to the North Waziristan
tribal region to hold the first-ever direct talks with the Pakistani Taliban
to end the deadly cycle of violence that has claimed over 40,000 lives.

The government’s team was accompanied by the nominated
negotiators from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The much-anticipated direct talks would be attended by
all four members of the government’s reconfigured negotiating committee, TTP
intermediaries and members of the Taliban ’Shura’.

The Taliban’s intermediaries are Maulana Samiul Haq —
head of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema Islam (Sami group),
Jamaat-e-Islami’s Ibrahim Khan, and JUI-S spokesperson Maulana Yousaf Shah.

The committee will also seek extension of the month-long
ceasefire announced by the TTP.

The talks struck an impasse last month after a faction of
the banned militant group killed 23 kidnapped Pakistani para-military
soldiers, resulting in multiple targeted airstrikes by the military against
militant hideouts in the tribal region of the northwest.

Setting up a chain of 25 cancer detection

Medical diagnostics and imaging equipment company GE
Healthcare,said it was jointly investing Rs.720 crore with U.S.-based Cancer
Treatment Services International (CTSI) to set up a chain of 25 cancer
detection and treatment centres across the country.

GE Healthcare would put a minor portion into the
$120-million programme planned over the next five years.

With the new tie-up format, the diagnostics-focussed
company had made its closest approach towards treating a disease anywhere in
the world.

GE was also developing low-cost diagnostic technologies
‘in India and for India’ for various diseases, 100 of them targeting cancer
alone. It recently launched a low-cost version of PET-CT that is widely used
to find cancerous tumours.

GE would provide equipment while CTSI, which set up the
250-bed American Oncology Institute in Hyderabad in 2012, would take care of
treatment, doctors, medical personnel and related services.

Birth of Mount Everest

Mount Everest - the world's highest mountain - may have been born as
Asia was squeezed like a tube of toothpaste after India smashed into the
rest of the continent, scientists say.

The unexpectedly prolonged collision led to the formation of the
Himalayas and then caused them to grow ever taller.

These mountains are home to the world's 100 highest mountain peaks,
including the Everest.

Moresi and colleagues have developed a computer model that explains what
happens when continents collide.

The model shows that when one continent bears thick or buoyant crust
that blocks subduction, the other continent gets squeezed like a tube of
toothpaste and folds around the blockage, creating a complex array of
geophysical features.

It suggests that as India shoves into Eurasia, China and South-East Asia
initially resist being pushed underneath, and then get pushed aside instead.

The process unclogs the subduction zone and allows India to keep pushing
into Eurasia, raising up Mount Everest and its towering siblings.

Miami WTA final rematch

Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams will have a rematch of their 2013
final in the Miami WTA semi-finals after both advanced in formidable style.

Sharapova, who has not beaten the world number one American since 2004
and has lost 14 consecutive matches in the rivalry, regained her big-match
confidence after twice being pushed to three sets by defeating Petra Kvitova
7-5, 6-1.

Fourth seed Sharapova's 90-minute victory over the Kvitova, a fellow
Wimbledon champion, was a relief for five-time Miami finalist Sharapova, who
had faced huge battle in her previous two victories.